


Drunk on Milkshake, High on Chocolate

by cuddlydreamsonrainydays



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Chocolate, Fast Food, Fluff, Louis swears a lot, M/M, Milkshakes, Professional Procrastination, Sleep Deprivation, all sorts of sweet stuff really, the boys are sweet as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-30 01:20:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5145020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlydreamsonrainydays/pseuds/cuddlydreamsonrainydays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes even McDonald's and a swearing roommate are good for something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drunk on Milkshake, High on Chocolate

“Niall, turn the freaking light off, it’s fucking three am and I need to get my damn sleep. It’s not my fault that you dickhead always only study at the very last minute you can’t possibly learn all this in one night!” Niall sighs and turns the laptop off. 

“Fine, Louis. I’m getting out.” 

“Out? Man, you need to sleep!” Louis’ head peeks out from under his covers with barely opened eyes and messy bed hair. “It’s bloody late!” 

“I can tell from the amount of swearwords you are using but I really need to pass that History exam!” Niall gets out of bed. He doesn’t bother to change out of his sweatpants and a crinkly shirt because why should he? Who is even outside at three am? Yeah, right, nobody, so there’s nobody to see Niall’s outfit and his head is so full of names and dates he’s never heard of before that he feels like it might explode. 

“Should’ve started studying earlier, not two nights before the fucking exam,” Louis grumbles, but he’s already disappeared under his blanket again. 

“Go to sleep, Louis.” Niall grabs his keys for their dorm room, his wallet and his text book and leaves the room, not waiting for Louis to respond. They are mates and Niall loves him to bits, really, but when Louis is sleep deprived (everyone is, really, it is finals week) he’s way too obnoxious. And Niall is craving a milkshake, anyways. Badly. 

He doesn’t think he can fit any more of that History crap into his head, but he has to pay for not studying and only mindlessly doodling in class for an entire semester now and cram in the last two nights because his tutor made it very, very clear that Niall needs to pass the final exam. Great, really. So, it’s three am and Niall’s had enough. 

He walks through the dorm building on campus and shivers lightly when he gets outside and the chilly night air hits him. He should’ve put a jacket on, maybe, but he can’t go back now, Louis would seriously murder him. So he just hurries to his car and turns the heater on. He should’ve considered that it is December, really.

The silly Christmas decorations everywhere are normally enough to remind him, the stuff that some students bring is really trashy. When he went to his mate Josh’s room two days ago to get some notes on the math class they share, he tripped over a big inflatable Santa in swimming trucks that lay on the floor. 

It’s horrible, really, and he’s looking forward to winter break and actually going home, because Christmas in a dorm is fun only for a while and everything but festive. He just needs to get through the finals first, and he needs to do well because he’s going to see his parents and if they get the impression that he’s only lazing around, they’ll no longer pay for his dorm and his university in Manchester and he’ll be back in Ireland faster than he can say “procrastination”. 

Niall likes to see himself as a professional procrastinator. It’s not like he can’t do hard work and be concentrated, it’s rather the actual learning part has never truly been his thing. He’s mainly going to university because he didn’t want to do a real job already at nineteen and he needs a solid education if he wants to make this dream come true, which is being a musician. 

Right now, he’s no longer thinking about university, classes or even music anymore, and music normally is constantly on his mind. He’s learned to play the guitar at age seven and been attached to it since, it’s his passion. His other passion though is food, and he’s pulling into the McDonald’s drive-through. 

“A large chocolate milkshake,” he orders, “and a chocolate muffin,” because why not. He’s hungry, and he’s been studying for hours, and chocolate is meant to lift the mood, isn’t it? A voice comes out of the speaker, repeating his order to make sure they got it right. 

“Large chocolate milkshake, chocolate muffin. Anything else?” 

“Nah, that’s all.” 

“Please pick your order up at the window a few metres forward.” 

Niall’s used to the process, he’s a regular at McDonald’s. He wonders who the heck works at the drive-through at three in the morning, because normally there is an old woman with tired eyes or that sulky man in his forties or something that looks like he’s dedicated his life to fast food and never experienced anything else. He mixes Niall’s orders up regularly, too. Occasionally there’s a young, very bored and very superficial girl that always smiles at him like she’s trying to flirt, but Niall is a) super gay and b) not really a fan of make-up, especially when he feels like he wouldn’t even recognize the person that’s hiding behind it any more. 

Today’s voice was none of the three, though, so Niall awaits his order and also the waiter impatiently. He picks up his wallet, ignoring his History textbook carefully, and gets ready to pay. The guy that shows up at the drive-through window is about his age, and he’s gorgeous. Niall’s breath hitches. 

He stares at the guy with his messy brown hair and chocolatey puppy eyes and his beautifully plump lips and god, Niall wants to kiss him and bury his hands in that hair and cuddle the boy in his cuteness. He’s got shadows under his tired eyes but a smile on his face. 

“…pounds.” 

“Uh, sorry, what?” Niall hasn’t even noticed the boy talking, he’s way too busy staring at him. 

“That will be 3 pounds, eight pence, I said. Finals?” He has an understanding look in his eyes and Niall is glad for the excuse, being able to pass his embarrassingly fast crush off as just being sleep deprived. He is, too. 

“Yeah.” He hands the boy the money, their fingers touch for a second, and to Niall it feels like he’s been struck by lightning, but in a positive way. He’s suddenly energetic again. “History exam the day after tomorrow,” he manages. “Never studied, got to pull two all-nighters now.” 

“That sucks, man. Stop by tomorrow again and your milkshake will be free?” The employee hands him his change and brown paper bag with his food and freaking winks. Niall is about to faint, but his inner autopilot saves him once again from totally making a fool of himself. 

“One could never deny such an offer,” he hears himself saying and returns the wink. The boy laughs. 

“My name is Liam, by the way.” 

“Niall.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Niall.” Their conversation is ended abruptly when the driver of the car behind Niall in the drive-through lane hoots aggressively. Niall gives Liam, who rushes off with a worried expression, one last smile and then starts his car again. 

He parks it in a car park nearby and sighs before getting the milkshake and the muffing out of the bag and opening his History textbook again. He’s really got to study, and it will be best if he distracts himself from the beautiful drive-through boy whose name now is Liam, which suits him perfectly. His thoughts keep creeping back to the chocolatey eyes (why did he order a chocolate milkshake and a freaking chocolate muffin again?) and the lips that he really, really, really wants to kiss. It’s four am when he decides that, even though studying is important, he will get nothing into his head anymore and the page keeps getting blurry in front of his eyes. 

In hindsight, he should have ordered a coffee rather than a milkshake, but Niall absolutely detests coffee and he loves milkshakes. Caffeine in the middle of the night is never good, anyways. Niall distinctively remembers secretly drinking coke late in the evening as a child and his parents always finding out because he always was super-hyperactive after. 

Anyways, his milkshake is empty and he’s finished his muffin, and he’s really, really read enough about World War 1 now (it’s not the worst topic, he’s willing to admit that, but it gets bad after like ten hours), so he drives back to the campus again and sneaks into his dorm, careful not to wake Louis even though he’s practically bursting to tell him about Liam. That has to wait until the next morning, because even though they don’t have classes, Niall can’t allow himself to sleep in too late, he’s got a Musicology exam at noon. 

He’s not too worried about that because he isn’t dumb and if he actually pays attention in class, he doesn’t need to study that much and he thinks about music non-stop anyways. It’s not his fault that History is so damn boring! He falls asleep thinking about Liam and chocolate, which he thinks are really nice thoughts to fall asleep to. 

The way he’s woken up is not so nice. Louis hits him in the face with a pillow, annoyingly energetic for – oh, it’s already eleven. Crap, the exam starts in an hour and Niall feels halfway dead. 

“Get up, you dickhead, and thank me for waking up your lazy ass! That’s literally the only exam you are sure to pass, but you still have to do it.” 

“Yes, Mum,” Niall groans. “Shut up for a moment I studied until fucking four am.” 

“Yes and I didn’t get enough sleep to be concentrated during my exam today, you better be fucking glad that I got PGCE English done two days ago and today is only Theatre which I am pretty good at.” 

“God, Tomlinson, do you ever stop swearing, you posh future teacher?” 

“Not with you, Horan, you provoke my rude side.” 

“Rude.” 

“Your comebacks are way better when you’ve not been up until ass o’clock in the morning and stuffing yourself with chocolate.” At the mention of chocolate, Niall sits bold upright. 

“I have to tell you something.” 

“So awake all of a sudden? What’s up, Horan?” 

“I met a boy. At the drive-through.” Louis, who has been rummaging around in his wardrobe, turns around abruptly. 

“Are you kidding me? You’ve got to be kidding me. There are no decent boys working at McDonald’s at three am!” 

“I’m not! His name’s Liam, and god, Lou, he’s so sweet with his eyes and his voice is, like, man, I can’t even describe…” Louis laughs. 

“You’ve so got a crush. Have you even talked to him?” 

“Please, Tommo, I’m not that desperate, of course I’ve talked to him!” Niall pouts and rolls his eyes simultaneously. Louis only laughs harder.

“I’ve really got to go now and you should put some clothes on, honestly, my poor, innocent eyes. Don’t forget about your finals, lover boy!” Speaking and leaving. Niall climbs out of his bed and somehow manages to put on some clean and not too crinkled clothes. He rubs his eyes and glances at the alarm clock on Louis’ bedside table. 

Their room is too messy to look for his own that he’s thrown at the wall across the room when it wouldn’t shut up a week ago. He’s not even sure if it still works, now that he thinks about it, but it’s almost half past eleven by now and if he doesn’t want to sit through a two hour exam on an empty stomach, he needs to hurry. Five minutes later, he’s ready and rushes out of the room, luckily remembering to grab his backpack and his keys. 

He gets a muffin, blueberry this time, and a snickers bar from the kiosk as an improvised breakfast and scrambles into the lecture hall two minutes before the exam is supposed to start. His professor acknowledges him with disapproval, but Niall’s only glad he’s made it and he’s trying to get his focus on the topics for this class now instead of thinking about tonight, so he really doesn’t care much. 

When he’s done with the exam and pretty satisfied with himself, he goes back to his dorm, hoping to find Louis there, but instead it’s just Harry, who treats their dorm like his own since he’s Louis’ boyfriend from, like, kindergarten, and who Niall is in the same History class with. The difference between them is that Harry actually likes History, while Niall only took it because he needed more serious classes, so Niall was able to copy Harry’s notes from the semester, which is a plus, but now that he knows he needs to study for that damn class and he doesn’t want to because it is only half past two and he has all night, Harry’s presence only makes him feel guilty. 

“Hey, Harry.” 

“Niall! Have you studied for tomorrow?” And, well, shit. 

“Yes, I have,” Niall answers defensively, pulling out his textbook from under his pillow. Harry laughs. 

“Great way to study, Horan, the information won’t just fly into your head, you know?” He speaks in his usual slow, deep drawl and gestures a lot for a sentence that short. 

“Shut up, Styles,” Niall groans, “I actually did study. But I’m going to study some more now, so if you could quietly wait for Louis to finish with his Theatre exam or footie practice or whatever….” 

“Course, mate.” Niall reads through the chapter in his textbook that he’s got the most problems with, actually remembering something from the night before, and tries to ignore Harry, who, of fucking course, has absolutely no worries because of their exam the next day. Fine! Louis stumbles in at four (by that time Niall almost calls him Napoleon, accidentally), sweaty from his footie practice. 

He showers, and Niall takes the chance and leaves to sit in the library because he does not want to see the two of them having sex, thank you very much. He’s still not that desperate. It’s six when he decides that he should go see whether the two of them are finished, and half past six when he finally, finally, after being stopped by fellows from his Musicology class twice that want to know what he answered for question whatever, actually ends up at the dorm. Louis and Harry are there, but fully clothed and lying on Louis’ bed watching something on his laptop. 

“I’ll just hope you’re not watching porn,” Niall says instead of a greeting. 

“Horan! Have you been dumped by drive-through boy, or where does that shitty mood come from?” 

“His name is Liam, and I haven’t even seen him yet, thank you, also who would dump me I mean I’m obviously fabulous. Unlike you, dickhead, I still wonder every day why Harry is with you.” 

“Jealous?” Niall’s glance flickers between Louis and Harry, both with the same idiotic grin on their face, and he scoffs. 

“Not the slightest. So, are you watching porn? Because if that’s the case I’ll turn right around.” 

“Maybe we should switch to porn, Haz,” Louis suggests as a joke and laughs. “Nah, Niall, stay. You’ve got to get at least some physical rest, if you’re already going to stay up with a stupid textbook. Man, I want to party! I haven’t been to a damn party in, like, a week!” 

Niall only shakes his head, while Harry laughs. Seriously, that boy is so weird, starting already with his curls that kind of just bounce whenever he moves and those long legs that he always, always falls over because he is too clumsy for his lanky figure. He eats all that healthy stuff, too, when he’s not baking. Niall doesn’t understand that at all. He goes for the junk food. Louis, as an athlete, tries to maintain a healthy diet at least during the week, but his excessive alcohol consume (it’s like he’s Irish, too) compensate for that. 

But Niall is only distracting himself, and there are like three more chapters in his textbook and those chapters are fucking long, plus Harry’s notes that he needs to get through, so he puts his earphones in, blasts some guitar solo music and starts reading. Harry and Louis go have dinner at half past seven and he joins them because his stomach and his brain are aching for food, and Louis has heard a rumour that there’s pizza for dinner in the cafeteria (there is, and Niall is happy). 

He gets back to studying at half past eight, and forbids himself to look at the alarm clock. It’s tempting, but he’d end up only staring at it and not actually studying, he knows that, so he’d rather not look. He’s got a good part done until eleven, when Louis comes in, annoyed. 

“Coach scheduled a damn practice at fucking eight in the morning tomorrow, with no classes and our game on Saturday, this is bullshit! ‘M off to bed.” 

“G’night, Tommo.” Niall hears a grumble from Louis’s side of the room where Louis actually needs to dig through his mess to find his sweatpants (they really should clean their room, but it’s only one and a half week until they go home anyways so) and just assumes that it means good night. He yawns for the first time at one in the morning, and at two he can’t wait anymore. 

Liam should be there, shouldn’t he? 

So he sneaks out of the dorm (Louis is snoring) and, this time with somewhat warmer clothes, heads to his car, with his textbook and the notes inside under his arms. There’s only one more chapter that he needs to revise once more, and it’s the French revolution (he’s switched the order so that he studied World War 1 once at night and once in the afternoon when he’s actually awake), he studied that in the afternoon already, so he should be fine. He’s at the drive-through in exactly seven minutes and says his order into the mechanic thing. 

“A large chocolate milkshake and a chocolate muffin, please.” 

“Is that Niall?” Oh, it’s Liam. A stupid smile spreads on Niall’s face. 

“Yeah, it’s me,” he answers. “And now that I know it’s you, I’d like to order your number, as well.” 

“I would’ve made you pay with yours.” Niall laughs, and Liam joins in. “You know where you can pick your order up.” 

“Aye, Sir!” Niall drives the few metres and finds Liam already at the window, with a paper bag and a paper in his hands that he hands to Niall at once. 

“No paying?” Niall raises his right eyebrow. 

“No paying.” 

“Well, thank you very much for this exquisite meal in the middle of the night, then. Why do you work at unholy times like this?” 

“Because I’m not religious,” Liam jokes, and god, Niall is so smitten. “Nah, it’s because I need money, really, and my class schedule is so fucked up that I can only work at night. It’s not that bad, really, I’m brilliant at nap-taking.” 

“You go to Manchester University?” 

“I wouldn’t exactly work here if I went somewhere else, would I, there’s McDonald’s like everywhere.” 

“True. Don’t you have finals?” 

“The night is good to study.” 

“I’ve never seen you on campus before!” Talking to Liam is easy, way too easy considering how they’ve known each other for not even twenty-four hours. 

“As I said, my class schedule is truly fucked up.” There’s someone blowing their horn behind the two again, and Niall sighs. 

“I’ll text you,” he promises, “when I’m done with this exam. And thank you for the milkshake and the muffin!” 

“Got to do something to woo a man,” Liam says as Niall is already driving away, and he almost hits the brakes hard there and then because what has Liam just said and oh god his crush might actually be mutual. The stupid smile just won’t come off his face anymore. He puts the piece of paper with Liam’s number scribbled on it, along with a goofy smiley face, into his wallet, resisting the urge to put it into his phone already now, and opens the paper bag. 

He finds his milkshake and muffin with an additional brownie. Liam must be an angel, and he full-on intends to keep him. The next day is Friday and Niall sits through his History exam with a feeling of “actually not bad, could’ve easily been worse”, though he’s quite sure he’s screwed up a few dates and maybe confused some of the less important people, but that won’t stop him from passing. 

So he’s happy, and practically runs back to his room because he’s finished his History exam and finals week is over and he can finally text Liam. He’d normally go out and celebrate with Louis but the little fucker has an important match tomorrow, this year’s last, and sometimes even being responsible, he won’t go and get drunk the night before. Harry is no option, also. 

Of course Niall could just show up at a random party, it’s not like anyone cares about who’s there and who’s not after three beers and a few shots, but he doesn’t really feel like partying without his mates. This time, his celebratory act will be texting Liam. Or so he thinks. When he looks into his wallet, the piece of paper is gone. 

“Fuck!” He vaguely remembers grabbing money for breakfast in the morning and frantically starts to search for the paper, but the room is way too much of a mess and now Niall wishes they’d cleaned it earlier. Then again, he could’ve lost it on his way to the on-campus kiosk just as well and clearly, it is lost. Louis finds him on his hands and knees when he bursts into the room about an hour later. 

“What the fuck are you doing, Horan?” 

“Have you seen a piece of paper with a mobile number on it?” 

“So you got your boy’s number and then lost it? Oh, this is hilarious. Do you even know his last name?” 

“No, I don’t and yes, I’ve fucking lost it, are you happy now?” 

“Don’t get so angry on me, it’s not my fault. ‘M going to shower first, coach is a freaking militarist.” Louis stomps off into their little bathroom while Niall sighs and stands up. He flops down on his bed. Great, just great. He won’t embarrass himself, go to the drive-through again, and ask for Liam’s number again because he’s lost it, absolutely no way. 

He either needs to find it, or… Well, he needs to find it, but he’s taking a break first. Maybe Louis will be up for a late lunch, he didn’t look like he’d eaten before. When Louis gets out of the shower again, he looks already a lot more relaxed. 

“I’m hungry,” he announces. “Fancy crappy cafeteria food?” 

“You know I’m always up for food,” Niall replies smoothly and jumps up to at least fix his hair and get a bit of the dust off of his clothes (it’s from under his bed, and it’s a lot) while Louis puts on clothes and shakes it head twice to dry his hair a little. 

“I hope we’ll at least do well tomorrow after all that fucking training.” 

“I’m sure you will, you’re amazing, Lou. The coach made you captain for a reason.” 

“There will be scouts,” Louis says sheepishly and for once he’s not his usual loud, flamboyant persona but quiet. “You coming for my support? Harry is, you can sit together.” 

“Of course I am, the whole university is… wait a moment.” The whole university? Something clicks in his head. 

“What? Oh, bugger, there’s those crappy veggie things again. And eggs.” 

“They’re always thinking of the athletes,” Niall complains. “I need fast food, not stuff that tastes like nothing! And you interrupted me, Tommo, rude.” 

“Well, you interrupted yourself now, too.” Niall rolls his eyes while they’re getting a tray and some food on it, each. 

“Anyways, I was just saying, the whole school will be there, tomorrow, right? Liam is a student here, so there’s actually a chance…” Louis almost drops his tray. 

“He freaking studies here and you’ve never met him before?” 

“He says his schedule is fucked up.” 

“Must be really fucked up, considering the amount of time you spend at the cafeteria.” 

“Hey, I’m mostly here when I remember that I’ve already payed for this food and I’m running out of money for decent food.” 

“So McDonald’s is decent food now? This is how they’re ruining our taste-buds here, we should try and sue them.” Louis shakes his head disbelievingly. Niall takes a bite off his eggs. 

“Tasteless,” he declares. “But I’m hungry, so the right amount of ketchup will have to have fix that, I guess.” Louis shakes his head again. 

“So, instead of looking for him in the cafeteria, you’ll try and find him at the match tomorrow? Do what you want as long as you don’t cause me a scene while there are scouts.” 

“I wouldn’t ruin your future like that, even though you are a massive dickhead.” Niall looks around nevertheless. There aren’t many people in the cafeteria, and Liam definitely isn’t amongst them. 

“Besides, he’s not here. Maybe lunchtime is nap-time for him, he’s like a vampire with his work at night.” 

“Well, if you do find him tomorrow, which I doubt, you will have to introduce us. Vampire drive-through boy sounds fascinating. Ugh, these beans are like straw. I hate eating healthy. Take me to get some fast food after my match tomorrow.” Louis squinches up his face in disgust. 

“Never liked green beans anyways.” Niall tosses his own to the side. “Shouldn’t you ask your boyfriend to take you out? Where is he even why aren’t you attached at the hip?” 

“I think he’s in his yoga class… The point is, Harry would never get fast food with me and I need someone to stuff my face with burgers and fries and all that crap with and not beside. He’d be there, only shaking his head and drinking one of his damn kale smoothies. They taste worse than this, really.” Niall grins. 

“Cheating on your boyfriend for fast food, you’re unbelievable, Tommo. But as fast food is basically what I live for, you’ve chosen the right person.” 

“Geez, Niall, don’t get overdramatic now, I’m trying to keep this poor excuse of food down.” 

“We have a da-hate,” Niall sing songs with a wide grin. “I’m going to ditch you for Liam, though.” 

“I want my fast food, I don’t care if he comes with us. Wait, no, find him and make him get us the stuff for free!” Niall sighs. 

“If only it was that easy…”  
It’s really not easy, he thinks to himself when he’s in the freaking cold stands with Harry, whose clutching a thermos bottle with his enormous hands and telling Niall about the health benefits of green tea. Needless to say that Niall isn’t listening. 

“Where is Liam?” Harry isn’t listening to him, either, so they’re even. The stands are packed with students and they’re all wearing purple and black and yellow and those damn school colours aren’t helping. Everyone seems to look literally the same. 

“Do you know anything about him that might be helpful? Y’know, I’ve actually been to these games quite a few times. The people that have some close kind of relation to someone on the team sit here.” Harry points at them and their area. 

“Figured that,” Niall mumbles, because no, he doesn’t have a clue what Liam’s major is. “I’ll just – I’ll go looking for him, we’ve got like a quarter of an hour until they even start to play, and the beginning isn’t the most important, right?” Harry only shrugs and turns to talk to someone he apparently knows and Niall doesn’t (he may be a bit of a party guy but he mostly sticks to his mates and he’s always too drunk anyways to remember people he met), and Niall stands up, looking around. 

Liam is not in this area. He won’t be with the Musicology and similar guys because Niall knows those, he waves at them as he passes them, so he gets further. Apparently Liam doesn’t study Economics or utter crap like that either, which Niall is honestly glad about. While he is still making his way through the masses, the more dedicated fans stand up and cheer and Niall turns around abruptly to see what’s happening on the field. He hasn’t heard anything yet, there must be a commentator, not everyone in this stands can possibly be a football expert that is just- ouch. 

He’s run into someone, full-on against their chest. It’s a boy, at least, otherwise the situation would be even more embarrassing. Even though he’s gay, he doesn’t walk around just telling random strangers, and having his head between a girl’s boobs would be damn awkward. 

“Sorry,” they both cry out at the same time and stumble away from each other. Niall has to look up to see the guy he’s run into, but when he can actually see who it is (sometimes he just hates the sun) he gasps. 

“Liam, oh my god, I was looking for you! You are Liam, aren’t you, because if you aren’t Liam, this is very, very awkward and I apologize.” The guy laughs and Niall knows he’s Liam, but the laugh is also kind of tense. 

“Niall. Still not over with your exam? Or were you just looking for excuses? Y’know, that would be completely fine, it’s not like I’d expected you-“ 

“Would you pretty please just shut up for a moment?” Niall interrupts and mentally slaps himself with a golf club. Hard. 

“Actually I was looking for you because… Well, listen, I did want to text you, a lot, but I was in a rush for my exam because I overslept and I just grabbed some money out of my wallet where I had your number and when I came back from the exam, I wanted to finally put it into my phone it’s almost embarrassing how fast I ran from the lecture hall to my dorm, but I couldn’t find the number and I share a room with Louis and unfortunately he’s just as messy as I am and I’m afraid I have lost your number. Okay, I’m rambling, sorry, long story short, I lost your number which is embarrassing and I wasn’t sure if you’d be at the drive-through at night and I didn’t want to embarrass myself, so I kind of hoped to see you here.” 

“Wow, Niall, easy, breathe.” Liam raises his hands defensively, but the smile on his face is real. “It happens to the best of us. Give me your phone and I’ll put my number in.” Niall hands him the phone gratefully. 

“I intend to keep you,” he announces in all seriousness. “Not only are you the god of brownies, you are also organized and you don’t freak out at me.” Liam laughs again. 

“I sent myself a text.” Niall’s phone is back in his hands. The cheers are getting louder. 

“I think it’s started, has it started?” Niall can’t see anything because he’s smaller than the people in front of him, but Liam sees above their heads easily. 

“Yes, it has. I should…” 

“I’m sitting with my mate Harry, he’s Louis’ boyfriend; do you know who Louis is? He’s the captain. Would you want to sit with us over there?” He vaguely points out the direction with his thumb over his shoulder. Liam shakes his head slightly. 

“Sorry, but I actually have my shift in ten minutes or something now. I’m working until late – stop by after the match? By the way, I was hoping to see you, too.” He leaves with that and Niall stays back with his mouth gaping open and his phone, now containing Liam’s number, clutched tightly in his hands. As soon as his legs no longer feel like jelly, he rushes back to Harry. He’s promised Louis he’d be watching, after all, and Niall Horan keeps his promises. Most of the time. Harry awaits him with impatience. 

“There you are! See that man? He’s a scout for the junior Manchester United team. If Louis gets there, he’s got about everything he’s ever dreamed of!” 

“Great,” Niall replies absent-mindedly. Football is not what he is interested in right now. “I found him!” 

“What, Louis? Man, that’s easy.” 

“Not Louis, I know he’s the one with the yellow thingy around his arm and number seventeen, his jerseys are everywhere in our room, it’s too annoying to not notice. I found Liam!” He has at least a quarter of Harry’s attention now, which he decides is enough for a moment. 

“So, his major?” 

“Uh, actually I only ran into him… but that’s not what matters! I got his number, for real now!” Niall is literally bouncing in his seat from excitement, earning weird looks from people nearby. 

“So why aren’t you texting him, then?” Harry never looks up from the field, but he has a point. Niall pulls out his phone and searches for a contact named Liam, which he doesn’t find, but he does find one that says Leeyum and he certainly hasn’t had a contact saved as Leeyum before. The nickname is just adorable. Then again, everything about Liam is adorable, he could be murdering someone and Niall would probably still be watching with heart eyes. Boy, he’s so smitten. 

‘This is Niall,’ he texts and thinks for a moment. Just that seems way too boring and it isn’t really Niall’s standard to be boring. 

‘This is the weird guy with a love for chocolate. Deffo gonna take you u up on the offer of fast food, gonna have to bring my mate Louis his boyfriend’s a health freak. See you then xx’ He presses send before he can actually think about how many x’s to write or if even any, and if his language was okay and if he should’ve settled for ‘This is Niall’ after all. Texting has never been this difficult. He can’t worry any longer, though, because Harry grabs his arm and shouts at him to look because oh, Louis has the ball and he’s inches from scoring a goal. 

“He’s brilliant!” Harry is on his feet and Niall has no other choice but to stand up as well. The cheering comes easy, the entire crowd around him is going nuts because Louis scored and the goalkeeper had actually no chance. The excitement and the atmosphere electrify Niall from there, their team is in the lead and everyone is ecstatic. Louis scores two more goals until half-time. They take a break from cheering and Niall immediately fumbles his phone out of his pocket. Liam has replied. 

‘Saved as Chocolate Weirdo, buzzin to see u later! :D x’ A smiley face and an x is almost like two x’s, right? Niall forces himself not to worry, Liam is an honest guy and he said he’s buzzing, so he can’t have scared him away already. The break feels really short, but that might come from Niall staring at his phone for minutes like a lunatic. 

After the half-time break, the other team returns a bit stronger, but it’s 4:1 for Manchester in the end anyways so really it doesn’t matter. Louis joins them outside ten minutes later, showered and somewhat clean. 

“Fast food,” is the first thing he says to Niall when he’s been released out of Harry’s hug. 

“You earned it, babe.” 

“Harry, stop being so cheesy, fast food is not something you earn it’s something you demand.” Niall rolls his eyes at the two of them and demonstratively plays with his car keys. 

“Liam’s waiting for us at McDonald’s, so if you could…” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence before Louis’ questions drown him out. 

“You actually found him? He’s getting us food? He is waiting for us? Doesn’t matter, I want go, immediately. Story-telling later when I’m not hungry that was fucking exhausting.” Niall only shakes his head and laughs. Louis is too energetic after a match to listen properly, anyways, and Niall is also hungry. Harry says he’s got a yoga class and won’t join them (“Fast food is not healthy at all, anyways, and I don’t understand why you even like that greasy stuff!” “Shut up, it’s a damn religion!” “Good thing you’re not really religious, Lou-babe, see you later!” “Stop being so lovey-dovey, you two, it’s disgusting!”), so Louis and Niall head to Niall’s car just the two of them. 

It takes them nine minutes to get to McDonald’s because traffic lights are on during the day, and Louis is drooling over the prospect of a double cheese burger with bacon by the time they enter McDonald’s. Niall is drooling over something, or rather someone, else, and he spots Liam immediately behind the counter with a smile that turns goofy when he spots Niall. He waves. There are almost no customers, so Niall and Louis can talk to him immediately. 

“You must be Liam, my name’s Louis, I want the greasiest and biggest burger you can give me with a large fries and that’s only to start.” 

“He’s not had fast food in a while because of football,” Niall explains and shrugs helplessly. Liam only laughs. 

“Hi Louis, it’s nice to meet you, I’ll see what I can do. Niall, for you?” 

“Surprise me,” Niall says and winks. 

“Right, I feel like a third wheel with you two lovebirds, we’ll be sitting at that table there, you should join us this place is dead.” He pulls Niall along, away from Liam. 

“We’re not lovebirds!” Niall waits until Liam can’t hear them anymore to complain. “And you and Harry are the worst, anyways!” 

“Whatever.” Louis scoffs. 

“Louis, you’re even more of a dickhead when you’re hungry than when you are tired, it’s incredible, but not in a good way!” Luckily Liam is fast with their food and glides down in the seat next to Niall’s. 

“This is for you, Louis…” He slides him a tray packed with fries and the biggest burger Niall has ever seen. 

“Nialler…” Niall gets an adorable nickname and a large chocolate milkshake, along with a triple chocolate cookie and cupcake that he takes a closer look at. 

“There’s your name on it. I had it ready when you didn’t text yesterday, I was kind of…” 

“Yup, I’m definitely keeping you. You must be a freaking angel!” Liam laughs deeply, no longer blushing. 

“I wouldn’t object to that.” Louis rolls his eyes, but his mouth is too stuffed to comment something sarcastic. Liam’s brought a triple chocolate cookie for himself and a small chocolate milkshake. 

“So, Liam,” Louis starts when he is halfway through the enormous pile of food, “what are your intentions with my Niall?” Liam chokes on his milkshake and coughs horribly. Niall’s cheek go bright red. 

“Louis!” 

“Fine, fine. What is your major then?” 

“Psychology.” 

“And you work at McDonald’s.” 

“The psychological tricks here are actually quite interesting.” Liam grins. “They want to make you get those cravings.” 

“Leave me alone with school,” Niall pleads. He subtly scoots a bit closer to Liam. At least he hopes it’s subtly, Liam doesn’t seem to notice, but Louis’ piercing eyes see everything. It’s scary. 

“It’s practically winter break! Christmas! I love Christmas!” 

“You love everything where there’s food and presents, Niall.” Louis scoffs. Niall pouts. 

“So what?” Liam grins and ruffles his hair. 

“C’mon, I’m eating! Your adorableness is disgusting. This burger is fantastic, Liam, I don’t know what the heck you put in there but it takes like freaking heaven.” Liam bows his head down ironically. 

“Sure is.” Louis has his mouth stuffed already again and doesn’t pay attention to them (his fries are far more interesting, and for once, Niall is glad to be placed under fries in someone’s priorities), so Niall turns to Liam. 

“Psychology, huh?” 

“I like it a lot,” Liam says simply. “I’m focusing on mental illnesses and I want to help teens with for example depression or an eating disorder later.” 

“That’s really cool, Liam. I bet you’ll make an amazing psychologist.” 

“I hope so.” Liam blushes and quickly hides behind his milkshake. Niall takes a sip of his, too. It tastes amazing. He might be getting addicted. 

“So that is Louis.” 

“Yeah, he’s my roommate. He’s an absolute dickhead, but somehow we get along. Louis says something along the lines of “I’m not a dickhead,” but the sound is muffled by the food in his mouth, and Liam and Niall don’t pay attention to him. 

“My other mate is Harry, but I’m kind of the third wheel with them, obviously. Who are your friends?” 

“I’ve moved here for this semester only and with my job mostly at night, I can’t afford partying. I know a few people, but the only one I hang out with somewhat regularly is my roommate Andy.” 

“You’re officially integrated in our friend group now, then.” 

“I’m happy to be.” Louis is finished with his food (Niall hasn’t touched his cupcake yet, mind you, it’s just too sweet of Liam to put his name on it) and pleads Liam to get him a big diet coke, a blueberry muffin and a chocolate caramel brownie. Liam obeys, and Niall finally takes a bite of his cupcake with a heavy heart. It tastes heavenly. Completely done with their food, when even Louis is satisfied, they decide that it’s time to leave. The evening rush is coming in now and Liam has to work. 

“I’ll see you!” 

“Definitely.” Then Liam has vanished behind the counter again. Louis and Niall leave. 

“He’s up to our standards,” Louis concludes and rubs his belly dreamily. 

“Oh, so your standard for people I like is that they get you food now?” 

“You aren’t denying it anymore, I fucking said it!” 

“Shut the fuck up, Tommo, yeah, I like him.” 

“I do get that though, he seems nice. Too bad his working hours are so crappy, those milkshakes at three am will completely ruin your physique.” 

“There’s nothing to ruin there,” Niall laughs. Louis snorts. 

“Right, you only eat fast food anyways and have like no fucking muscle. How you stay so damn skinny has always been a brainteaser for me.” 

“Genes?” 

“Fucking good ones.” Niall shrugs. Sometimes he wishes he could at least put on some muscle. 

“That burger was really fantastic, but now I just want to go home.” 

“Christmas!” Niall cheers. Louis makes a sour face. 

“You’re forgetting about my birthday, too?” 

“Of course not,” Niall reassures him and pats his upper arm. 

“I’ve got your present planned since ages.” Louis now actually smiles. 

“Now I remember why I’m keeping you around, Horan.” 

“You’re only in for the presents, too, you fake ass!” 

“Nah, I actually miss my siblings. Talked to them a few days ago, they’re buzzing for me to come home. They’re growing up and I only see them every few months.” Louis doesn’t often get this thoughtful, but when he does, it’s serious. Niall apologizes at once. 

“Sorry, mate.” 

“Only one week.” 

“Classes or rather nah?” 

“Rather nah, what else?” They grin at each other. Niall sees Liam again on Monday night. They’ve been texting almost non-stop until since Saturday, and Niall’s learned that Liam has two older sisters and is originally from Wolverhampton, he has a only one liver and doesn’t drink much alcohol because of that and he likes to run and do boxing when he’s not at work or at his classes. And that he’s funny and genuinely nice and he provides food and Niall has absolutely fallen for him. 

He and Louis stay true to their decision of no classes after finals (with only one or two exceptions, because those are important classes) and so they find themselves at a pub Monday night, partying. There are surprisingly many people for Monday night and almost Christmas. It is great fun, the music is okay right from the start and turns fantastic after three shots and two pints of beer, and Niall can’t remember who he’s danced with and who’s bought him drinks, really, he only knows that his mind constantly keeps coming back to Liam. 

He texts him at two am, when he’s drunk but it’s starting to get late and he doesn’t feel like partying anymore. He’s craving a milkshake and he wants Liam to be there, that’s all he knows. 

‘were r u’ he texts. Liam replies in an instant. 

‘I’m at work. Are you drunk?’ Niall’s been looking for Louis for a while now, but since he can’t find him, he just stumbles out of the pub with a vague plan of texting him later. He’s not dumb enough to drive while he’s drunk, so he calls a cab over and tells the driver to drive him to McDonald’s. 

‘yea m drunkk wanna c u’ 

‘Don’t drive while you’re drunk! Take care, please.’

‘s a cab’ They’ve reached McDonald’s then and Niall somehow pays the driver before stumbling inside. Liam is alone. 

“Leeeeyum!” Niall slurs and stumbles over to the counter, trying to hug Liam. 

“Hi, Niall.” Liam grins. “I’ve got your milkshake ready. Might sober you up a bit. He holds a big cup in his hand and comes around the counter. Niall doesn’t clearly register what exactly he’s doing, but he’s stumbling towards Liam with the desire to hug him and Liam is there and boy, Niall… 

“I love you,” he blurts out and attempts to kiss Liam. Liam shakes his head softly. 

“Niall, you’re drunk, you’re not in your right mind. Drink this first, you’ll feel better.” 

“I feel good I’m with you!” Niall protests, but Liam is stern, only handing him the milkshake. Niall almost spills it twice, too, but when he’s drunk the entire thing, he’s sobered up a good bit. 

“Oh god, this is embarrassing.” 

“It’s not that bad.” 

“It is! I’m not always this weird when I’m drunk, I swear!” 

“It’s kind of cute how clingy you get.” Liam takes the empty cup from Niall, who looks down to the floor with flushed cheeks. 

“I told you that I love you, right?” 

“Yes, you did, but we don’t have to talk about that if you don’t want to, you were drunk.” 

“I do want to talk about it, though. I might not love you just yet, but I do like you a lot and I don’t want to be just friends or talking or something like that. Liam James Payne, will you be my boyfriend?” Liam’s eyes seem wet, and his smile is the brightest smile Niall has ever seen. It lights up his entire world. 

“Yes,” Liam breathes. “Yes, yes, yes. Of course I will.” “I’m not going to kiss you now, my mouth feels nasty. Got to wait until tomorrow.” 

“I think I can live with that, if there are a lot of tomorrows.” 

“God, Liam. There’ll be an eternity of tomorrows… If I can get a brownie and a cookie now.” 

“And another milkshake?” 

“You’re my saviour, you god of chocolates.” 

“I think I can live with that, too.” They exchange smiles, and Niall is pretty sure that this will last forever. 

What can go wrong as long as there’s chocolate?

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing, really. Chocolate and Niam are quite frankly my entire life.  
> I hope you enjoyed this and I would very much appreciate kudos and comments:)  
> I tried really hard with the dialogues in this one!


End file.
